Graduation
by Lilysdementor
Summary: HPSS. Slash. One shot. Harry is happy. Ron is confused. Hermione's trying to work it all out. Will she succeed before the graduation ceremony?


Title: Graduation

Author: Jane Delight

Warnings: slash

Disclaimer: Anything you recognise does not belong to me.

Summary: HPSS slash. One-shot. Harry is happy. Ron is confused. Hermione is trying to work it all out. Will she succeed before the graduation ceremony?

**Graduation**

Humming woke Ronald Weasley up. It was a happy, quite joyful and energetic humming. He didn't recognise the tune, but he did recognise the hummer – his best friend Harry Potter.

Today was their graduation day. He and Hermione had thought that Harry would be quite sad on this day; Hogwarts was his home after all. But apparently it was not so.

Ron watched with a slightly confused expression how his room mate was packing the remainder of his stuff into his trunk, humming and… dancing?! all the while.

Harry turned around and Ron was greeted with a big grin and an enthusiastic "Morning!"

Maybe Harry had flipped? Maybe the Skeeter woman had been right all those years ago and Harry wasn't quite right in the head? But no, he – or at least Hermione, his better half – would've noticed it.

Baffled, he watched as his friend skipped out of the room, calling after him "I'll see you at breakfast!" Glancing at his watch, Ron realized that it was barely 7 am. His other room mates were still asleep.

How was this possible? Harry was usually one of the last people to get up! Only he, Ron, always got up later than Harry! And now they were the first two awake! There was something going on. Ron was sure of it. There really was no other explanation. He'd have to talk to Hermione.

Half an hour later, he was sitting next to his girlfriend on the sofa in the Common Room, a frown upon his face.

Hermione, on the other hand, was yawning.

"Why did you drag me out of bed a whole one and a half hours before breakfast, Ron?" she asked, blinking at her boyfriend tiredly.

"It's Harry. Something's wrong with Harry…"

Immediately Hermione jumped up and was making her way towards the Boys' Quarters when Ron held her back.

"He's gone down to breakfast."

She let out a sigh of relief. "He's gone down to – wait, he's gone down to breakfast?! Already?! What time did he get up?"

"At 7 he was fully dressed and packing…" Hermione's eyes widened. Ron considered not telling her the rest of it, but decided that if she was going to help him unravel this mystery, she'd have to know everything.

"He was… he was humming, Hermione… and…" he swallowed painfully "…and dancing." Hermione let out a squeak. Ron ploughed on nonetheless "Then, he wished me a good morning and skipped out of the room."

Hermione sank back down onto the sofa. Ron could tell she was in shock, trying to digest everything she'd just been told. Then, her posture slowly straightened and he could see her brain beginning to work.

He really admired her for being able to think properly so early in the morning. He loved how her face reflected what she was thinking about – at the moment she was wearing a small frown and she was slightly gnawing on her bottom lip – she only did that when she was thinking really hard.

Then suddenly Hermione jumped up and headed towards the portrait of the Fat Lady. Ron, not knowing what else to do, followed her.

They swept through the corridors, Ron straining to hear what his girlfriend was mumbling under her breath.

"Acting weird… always disappearing… coming back late… potions… detention… Malfoy... blackmail?"

Ron eyed Hermione, deciding on the spot he would not intrude her thoughts. He knew she'd tell him when she'd worked it out. Until then, he was content on letting her work on the problem – he was far too tired to contribute anything useful anyhow.

They arrived at the Great Hall. Hermione stopped her muttering and looked around. Ron did too. The hall was empty.

"Where's Harry?" Ron asked the obvious. Hermione's frown deepened.

Realising after a minute or so that his girlfriend would not answer the question, he suggested "maybe he's playing Quidditch?"

Hermione turned her gaze towards him.

"No. He didn't take his broom, did he? But maybe he's outside nonetheless…"

Hermione turned and walked off. Ron hurried to keep up with her.

Opening the doors leading outside, they were hit by relatively cold air. Hermione surveyed the grounds like a hawk looking for its prey. Ron wondered whether it would get warmer as the day wore on.

They set off again, Hermione once again in the lead. They checked everywhere Hermione could think of: the lake, Hagrid's hut, the Whomping Willow, even the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest. Harry wasn't to be found.

Ron checked his watch - nearly breakfast time. They should really head back – Harry was sure to be inside.

Hermione agreed with his suggestion, and soon they were back in the warmth of the castle, walking along the Gryffindor table towards a mop of black hair.

"We've been looking for you!"

Harry looked up from his plate, surprised.

"You have?" he asked with a confused expression.

"Ron told me you were up at seven!"

Harry turned to look at Ron, glaring slightly. Then he grinned and said "that's right!"

A small gasp could be heard from the other side of the table. Neville had obviously been following their conversation.

"We were wondering why your beds were empty. We figured… actually, we couldn't come up with a reasonable explanation."

Three pairs of eyes stared at Harry, waiting for an explanation. Instead, his grin widened and he continued devouring his breakfast bacon.

Hermione made a noise which could only be described as a frustrated growl, and squeezed herself in next to Harry. Ron took a seat next to her, though he had to convince several people to budge up a bit first.

Ron proceeded to load his plate with all of his breakfast favourites. He sure was hungry from all that walking. He noticed Hermione staring at Harry out of the corner of his eye, but decided to let her get on with it. He did, however, put some toast on her plate in the hope that she would eat something.

She didn't, but started gnawing on her lip again – Ron thought that maybe the motion acted as a food replacement.

Soon, breakfast was over. Dumbeldore requested that the seventh years return an hour later, all packed and dressed in their dress robes.

Hermione changed her strategy half way up to the Common Room.

"Why are you so happy, Harry?"

Green eyes glanced at her, his smile once again evolving into a grin, "no reason".

"Oh come on, Harry. Tell us!" Ron pleaded, when he noticed Hermione had gone back into thinking-mode.

Their best friend merely chuckled and gave them the rather cryptic answer "you'll see".

In the Common Room, the trio discovered that Ron was the only one who still had to pack – Hermione had done so the previous night and Harry had done so in the early morning hours. They did, however, all have to change into their dress robes, so Hermione went up to the girls' dorm, promising to come to the boys' once she was done.

In the boys' dorm, Ron started packing, whilst Harry quickly donned his dress robes. Then, he left. Ron had been busy fishing for a sock beneath his bed, but once he'd straightened up again, Harry had gone.

Needless to say, Hermione was very frustrated when she found out Harry had escaped the interrogation she had planned.

She was, in fact, also starting to get desperate, Ron noted. So desperate, that she spend a good few minutes looking for the Marauder's Map, before realising that either Harry had taken it, or it was already packed into his trunk – which was being transported to the train by the houselves. Ron was amazed that his girlfriend hadn't thought of that at the very beginning. The Harry situation must be stressing her out a lot.

Ron finished packing a quarter of an hour before they were to be in the Great Hall, for Dumbeldore's leaving speech. As he placed his last pair of socks into his trunk and closed it, it disappeared, seemingly into thin air. It was now being hauled onto the train, along with the other trunks.

He threw on his dress robes and was dragged by Hermione down to the Great Hall.

They arrived just on time to get a seat – Harry had saved two for them – and then Dumbeldore started his speech.

It was slightly familiar to Ron – his brothers had told him all about it, so he zoned out for a bit of it. To his surprise, though, Hermione didn't look as though she was hanging onto the headmaster's every word either. She was… gnawing again. Or rather: still.

Then the headmaster finished speaking and people began clapping. Ron joined in. He heard Hermione gasp and turned to face her. Over her shoulder he saw Harry getting up from his seat, and walking towards where the teachers were sitting.

Hermione's eyes were growing wider and wider by the second. Ron wanted to point out Harry's behaviour to her, but she shushed him immediately when he opened his mouth.

He observed Snape heading towards Harry. Maybe now that they were no longer student and teacher, they would have a proper fight, Ron thought, excited.

Hermione's squeak of "I've got it!" distracted him momentarily. Only momentarily though. His eyes soon found Harry and Snape again.

"Harry's…"

"… kissing Snape."

He finished her sentence for her, before fainting.

".. dating Snape"

Hermione blinked, looked over her shoulder at the happy couple, then turned back to the unconscious Ron, eyes full of wonder.

"So he is."


End file.
